Having yearly regular upgrades to your single-family rental home is a good investment strategy. Just as they need to be consistently maintained, rental homes have to be updated as well for them to stay up to date and competitive in the market. Property values in Ballard are extremely dependent on the state of the home both inside and out, so doing some investing to upgrade things every now and then is worth the time and the cost involved.
However, not all upgrades have direct benefits for property owners. Actually, certain upgrades have distinct advantages for the residents but don’t improve the overall property value or safeguard your real estate investment. You need to think of your options carefully before making any big updates to your rental property in Ballard.
For example, you might assume that installing new kitchen cabinets is an upgrade that would benefit both you and your residents. Your residents would love great cabinets, and you might be thinking that new cabinets would keep your property values’ upward trend. Nonetheless, kitchen cabinets are an upgrade that isn’t typically worth the cost since whatever value increase it may offer is usually less than the money spent on the project. If the kitchen cabinets in your rental are in very poor condition, you absolutely should replace them with something better. Otherwise, a good cleaning or maybe a coat of paint or stain is really all you have to do keep your cabinets looking good.
Another upgrade that has significantly more benefits for the residents than the rental homeowner is high-end window treatments. You may find that your residents are requesting for upgraded blinds, valences, or drapery systems to personalize their space. Still, while owners want residents to make a rental home comfortable, there’s no real benefit to providing any window treatments past standard blinds or shutters. Fancy window treatments don’t add much to the overall value of your property and are so attached to an individual style that they really don’t have widespread appeal.
On the topic of personal style, other decorative features such as trendy paint colors, custom garage doors, and so on might seem like a good way to bring in quality residents. Still, as with window treatments, the attractiveness of decorative features can vary so much between people. Because of this, upgrading beyond high quality, basic doors, windows, and interiors offers little to no benefit for property owners. For a quality rental home with lasting appeal, skip the latest trends and stick to the less exciting but definitely more tried-and-true décor themes regularly found in other rental homes.
Whether you’ve performed upgrades or not, rental property maintenance should always be a priority in order to maintain value. At Real Property Management Eclipse, we are devoted to securing your investment while creating great relationships with your residents. For further information about our property management services, please contact us online or give us a call directly at 425-209-0252.
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